Task lighting provides increased illuminance for a particular activity. A task light can be configured to be wearable, such as configured to be mountable to a person's head or torso, or not, such as an overhead or work-surface mounted light. Task lighting can be useful in any of a variety of activities, such as activities where increased illumination of small or recessed areas is desired, such as activities performed by jewelers, gemologists, watchmakers, photographers, dentists, geologists, microelectronics designers or technicians, tattoo artists, and surgeons, etc.
In the surgical field, surgical headlamps are one of the principal sources of illumination in an operating room (OR). Surgeons rely on surgical headlamps as a secondary source when the overhead lamps are blocked (shadowing) or in deep cavity surgeries where additional lighting is needed for visual acuity (e.g. cardiovascular, thyroid, orthopedic surgery etc.). Headlamps have the advantage of being in line with the surgeon's field of view, delivering light in the general area where the surgeon is seeing.
Despite their ubiquitous use in the OR, current headlamps have significant limitations particularly in the area of controls. A typical process of adjusting and controlling a headlamp includes, prior to surgery, doing an initial setup of the headlamp (position, intensity, beam size, focus etc.), which can be tailored to a particular surgical procedure. Due to sterility concerns and because a surgeon's hands are occupied during a surgery, this is typically the only time the surgeon can make lighting adjustments. If a change is required, e.g., after surgery begins, another person may need to make the adjustment. If the surgeon wishes to make the adjustment, e.g., by hand, the control features must be sterilized components because if the surgeon were to come in contact with a component of the headlamp that isn't sterilized, he would need to stop surgery in order to re-sterilize before proceeding.